By:  Ashley Laken

Seyfarth Synopsis: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently denied Quicken Loans, Inc.’s petition for review of an NLRB decision finding that confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions in the company’s Mortgage Banker Employment Agreement unreasonably burdened employees’ rights under Section 7 of the NLRA.

Back in 2013, an NLRB

By Jeffrey A. Berman and Candice T. Zee

In Triple Play Sports Bar & Grille, 361 NLRB No. 31 (2014), the National Labor Relations Board ruled that a Facebook discussion regarding an employer’s tax withholding calculations and an employee’s “like” of the discussion constituted concerted activities protected by the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”).

By: Howard M. Wexler

As we have previously reported–most recently here and here– the National Labor Relations Board has taken aim at employer workplace rules that it contends are unlawfully restricting employees’ Section 7 rights.

In yet another example, an NLRB Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) recently held in Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc. that an

By: Howard M. Wexler, Esq.  &  Joshua D. Seidman, Esq.

As we previously blogged about – most recently here  and here, the NLRB has taken aim at employer workplace rules that it contends are unlawfully restricting employees’ Section 7 rights.

On June 13, 2014 the NLRB affirmed an ALJ decision issued in

By:  Ashley K. Laken, Esq.
On May 19th, an NLRB administrative law judge (“ALJ”) found that a Hooters franchise located in Ontario, California unlawfully fired a waitress after she complained about a bikini contest run by the restaurant. The ALJ also held that Hooters maintained unlawful rules in its employee handbook, and that it

By:  Ashley K. Laken, Esq.

On January 31, NLRB Administrative Law Judge Susan Flynn ruled that two provisions of a non-unionized hospital’s code of conduct unlawfully interfered with employees’ Section 7 rights.  The ALJ also deemed unlawful a hospital official’s oral instruction to an employee to not discuss with others on staff the hospital’s

By: Howard M. Wexler and Joshua D. Seidman

Water cooler talk, i.e. office gossip, has been a seemingly timeless thorn in many employers’ sides, particularly because of the decrease in worker productivity that such gossip can cause. As such, some employers–with Section 7 rights being the furthest thing from their mind–have tried to limit such

By Ronald J. Kramer

A disturbing trend is beginning to appear.  The NLRB, or at least Region 28, is issuing and prosecuting complaints alleging that “at will” employment provisions in employee handbook acknowledgement forms (and presumably handbooks and employment applications) interfere with employees’ Section 7 rights to engage in protected concerted activity.  Although we are